I have written here in ActiveRain and in my " The VoiceOfSanDiegoRealEstate. com " blog a good bit over the last year about the looming water crisis in California and in San Diego in particular.

What's the cause of this problem? No rain ? Not enough snow in the mountain elevations? Partly, but there are so many other factors from some other unlikely sources.

For years and years we have been ignoring a simple truth. Southern California and much of San Diego is a desert area. It doesn't rain much in desert areas, I suppose that's why they call it the desert. When you pretend it is not the desert, and just build home after home and community after community believing that importing water will disguise that, eventually there comes a reckoning. That time of reckoning is now upon us.

When you compare our currently neighborhoods with lush green grass, trees and flowers with what is all around us, the contrast in startling. This was all made possible because the supply of water was able to be purchased and the supply we purchased is now going to be greatly diminished by an extended drought, the courts protecting fish in the Sacramento River Delta, and the common business principle of supply and demand.

Mandatory conservation is now going to be imposed and the costs are going to be skyrocketing shortly for the water that will have to be rationed out. Farmers have already had to lay fallow land that was previously used to raise our crops. Farming was big in parts of Southern California but it's significance is beginning to wane with less water.

This water story has been known for years but mostly ignored even as the costs continually increased year after year. Now it has hit the "crisis" level and people will be forced to take serious notice.

Sadly, I think most of this could have been avoided over the years but wasn't taken seriously enough. And for those who foresaw this looming crisis, they were simply rebuffed of their recommendations.

Environmentalists who want to protect life (not necessarily human life ) stand in the way of technology to convert sea water to drinking water. Elected officials stood in the way of those who wanted to conserve water by recycling used water by not providing the funding needed to make it happen. All the while, consumers continue to waste this precious resource.

A reckoning has begun. Consumers will have their supply of available water curtailed while having to pay nearly double what they get. The question I ponder is how will this affect home values and will create additional downward pressure on those values. For those that move here from other areas, will this water issue be the deciding one that says, No Thank You? Don't be surprised if it does. This has long been predicted and it appears that no one paid much of any attention. I hope everyone is ready to pay the water piper.